Space Center Houston is the Official Visitors Center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, which is the home of astronaut training and Mission Control. We are a separate 501(c)(3) organization, not a government agency.

Space Center Houston is the Official Visitors Center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, which is the home of astronaut training and Mission Control. We are a separate 501(c)(3) organization, not a government agency.

Three Generations of Rovers

February 16 2012

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Via NASA PAO

Two spacecraft engineers join a grouping of vehicles providing a comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is JPL’s Mars Yard testing area.

Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover, Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project. On the left is a Mars Exploration Rover Project test rover that is a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. On the right is a Mars Science Laboratory test rover the size of that project’s Mars rover, Curiosity, which is on course for landing on Mars in August 2012.